


Lessons

by sabrina



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-27
Updated: 2010-03-27
Packaged: 2017-10-08 09:15:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/75104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabrina/pseuds/sabrina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some lessons are not so much taught as absorbed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lessons

Severus was five. His legs didn't hit the floor as he sat on the wood seat watching his mother at the stove. She had her wand out, and the pots were stirring themselves and at every noise Severus' head turned towards the door. Young as he was, he knew enough to know that what his mother was doing was forbidden.

"It'll be cabbage again," Eileen's voice sounded as tight as the knots he'd tied in Victoria Hammond's hair last Monday. (He hadn't meant to, precisely, but she'd been teasing him _again_.) The wand waved at a pot in the kitchen sink and a tersely spoken _scourgify_ cleaned it, and another motion put it back into the cupboard. "He says he's looking for work," she continued, almost as if the small boy with the dirty nose and the overlarge tunic wasn't in the room with her. "Looking for another pint, more like. And who is he to tell me who I am? Who is he to tell you who _you_ are?"

The boy was noticed then and there was a start until he realised that the anger wasn't directed at _him_, Severus Snape, it was directed at _him_ the man that had been gone more than he'd been around of recent.

"You have so much potential, Severus, _so_ much potential, do you hear me?" Eileen had turned around, her hands still on the edge of the cracked porcelain sink, but her dark eyes were turned on her son with more intensity than he was used to. "Don't you dare let your Father tell you what you cannot be. He's only a Muggle -- he doesn't understand us."

Severus nodded soberly, he straightened his back so he was sitting taller. He might not be used to this sort of attention, but he could tell that it was a good sort.  
  
---  
  
Severus was eight. He had opened the door to find an older woman standing on the stoop and he'd stared at her and she'd stared at him with a look that said very plainly what she thought of the small boy in front of her.

"Mum!"

And Eileen had come, wiping her hands on a faded towel and she'd eyed the older woman, who had immediately pulled out her briefcase and began trying to convince them that they needed _this_ particular brand of whatever it was she was selling. Severus had stood to the side, angry only that the woman had stopped his retreat from the house. Lily was waiting for him and yet Eileen was standing there, the two of them blocking the only door into and out of the flat.

"Not interested."

The woman retreated after this was repeated two or three times, and as Eileen closed the door Severus could see the woman out on the side-walk, a gesture towards the house that was anything but friendly.

"As if I have any use for Muggle cleaners," Eileen said under her breath as she returned back to the kitchen.

Severus didn't say anything, and with a check to ensure the Muggle woman was gone, he slipped out of the front door to find Lily.  
  
---  
  
Severus was ten. Tobias had been gone for the entirety of the week -- one of his disappearing acts that both Eileen and Severus considered a mild blessing in disguise. Severus loved these rare moments when his Mother became a Witch and they would pull out her cauldrons and books, locking the door with magic, and Severus would learn about the Magical World.

"Tell me again about Hogwarts?" He asked, his elbows on his knees as he sat cross-legged on the floor, watching the cauldron bubble with the Hangover potion Eileen always brewed up when Tobias was gone. "And the houses."

"There are four, Severus," and Eileen's voice held more kindness than was typical for her. "Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor."

"And Slytherin is for the smart ones."

Eileen's laughter was as rare as sun in a Manchester January. "That's Ravenclaw, Severus, although Slytherins are clever too."

"I'm going to be in Slytherin," Severus said, with an equally rare smile. "Clever is good."

"Just don't be a Gryffindor," Eileen said, handing over the cup of honeywater for Severus to stir into the cauldron. "They rarely think before any action."

"Like Dad," Severus said, smile fading as he poured the ingredients in and the potion faded into a deep purple.


End file.
